The Unisys Cloud Insights Report 2025 looks at how global enterprises are prioritizing modernization to support the intersection of cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity.
Based on a survey of 1,000 senior business and IT leaders in eight countries, the report provides insight into current investments and the internal challenges many companies still face.
The findings reveal that while organizations are enthusiastically increasing investments in cloud and AI, many lack the foundational infrastructure to support them.
Few organizations are prepared to support agentic AI, even as interest in the technology grows. At the same time, cybersecurity remains reactive and cloud systems are becoming more complicated.
Meanwhile, a small subset of “Innovation Leaders” are outperforming their peers across nearly every business metric by treating IT as a catalyst for growth.
Why It Matters: Emerging technologies are already influencing real business results, but making the most of them requires systems that can support what’s next. Without stronger coordination between plans and execution, even well-intentioned investments can lead to costly setbacks.
- Innovation Hinges on Simplification: Complexity is the silent killer of progress. With organizations using an average of seven distinct cloud environments, inefficiencies are multiplying. The majority of business leaders now recognize that reducing infrastructure complexity is the single most effective way to unlock budgets for next-gen tech. Yet, only 25% of IT executives share this view.
- Infrastructure Can’t Keep Up: The adoption of agentic AI is set to surge, with expectations rising from 15% of organizations today to 94% by 2027. Business leaders are feeling the urgency: 73% believe failing to adopt agentic AI within the next year could impact competitiveness. Yet, 43% of IT executives report their infrastructure isn’t prepared to support these systems.
- Generative AI Growth Is Constrained by Data Fragility: Although only 43% of organizations are satisfied with the return on investment, 78% still plan to increase spending on generative AI in 2025. The main obstacle remains data. Just 36% say they have the systems and tools needed to manage large volumes of data effectively. That number has not improved since 2023, even as data quality becomes more critical to AI performance.
- Cybersecurity Is Reactive: A staggering 85% of organizations admit to a reactive cybersecurity posture. With unplanned downtime costing up to $500,000 per hour, this is a financial and reputational risk. While Zero Trust adoption is rising, only 14% say they’re ready for post-quantum threats. Generative AI is being explored for defense, but adoption remains slow.
- The Culture Gap Between IT and Business Is Widening: Business executives often believe they’re further along in AI adoption than IT leaders know to be true. For instance, 44% of business leaders think their organizations have launched agentic AI pilots, while only 30% of IT executives agree.
Go Deeper -> Unisys Cloud Insights Report 2025 – Unisys
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